The way the Chinese understood their past and themselves was profoundly shaped by the Shiji. The Shiji, or Historical Documents, was a monumental work consisting of 130 chapters written during the Han Dynasty by Sima Qian. He presented the past from several perspectives: a chronological narrative of political events; current affairs reports from key institutions; and biographies of individuals Qian considered important. The political narrative began with the Yellow Lord and continued through the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, up to the Han dynasty and Emperor Wudi of Sima Qian's time. Next came chronological maps with genealogical data and information on government tasks, such as the calendar, state ritual, construction of aqueducts, and public finances. Thirty chapters were dedicated to the ruling houses of the states of the Zhou period, chronicling the reigns of subsequent rulers. These were supplemented by seventy chapters on other notable figures, including not only great officials and generals, but also people not associated with government, both famous and infamous, including: philosophers, poets, merchants, magicians, and even rebels. Non-Han people along the frontiers were also described in narrative accounts. The emergence of a unified empire from the warring states of pre-Qin China, the consolidation of the former Han, and the relations between the empire and surrounding people groups were the main themes of Shiji. Qian's documents also offer insights through his role as a historian and his attempt to resolve a life-changing experience that stood out in his own life. Equally important, Sima Qian, by writing so well on so many topics, has had a profound impact on Chinese thinking on governance, pers...... middle of paper ......u have oscillated between an essentialist reduction of their nature to those aspects that the Chinese found particularly shameful and a more favorable appreciation of their intelligence and flexibility. Likewise, some Xiongnu customs, such as preferring the young over the elderly, are described as simple inversions of Chinese customs. The description of the political organization of the Xiongnu, for example, gives the impression of an efficient government rather than a backward tyranny. Indeed, its sophisticated combination of centralized control and decentralized administration seemed suited to command the admiration of Sima Qian's Chinese readers, many of whom were critical of the cumbersome Han government bureaucracy. His descriptions of the Xiongnu emphasized the limits of the expansion of Han civilization into the steppe regions of northern Asia.